Author: Robinson, H. C. and F. N. Chasen
Title: The birds of the Malay Peninsula. I-IV. I: The commoner birds; II: The birds of the hill stations; III: Sporting birds; birds of the shore and estuaries; IV: The birds of the low-country jungle and scrub.
Description: London, H. F. & G. Witherby, 1927-1939. Four volumes in four. 4to (27.1 x 19.0 cm). 1505 pp. (I [1927] xlviii, [iv] 329; II[1928]: xxii, [ii],310; III[1936]: xix, [iv], 264; IV [1939]: xxvi, [ii], 485, [i]); 100 full colour plates [25; 25; 25; 25], one map. Uniform red buckram with gilt titles on front boards and spines. Top edges gilt. = A seldom-seen set of the first four volumes, written by the British ornithologist Herbert Christopher Robinson (1874-1929) and continued, after his death, by the British zoologist (chiefly ornithologist) and assistent curator of the Raffles Museum in Singapore, Frederick Nutter Chasen (1896-1942). "Chasen was evacuated on one of the last boats leaving the doomed colony. He sailed on the H.M.S. Giang Bee, a converted coastal steamer, which was attacked by the Japanese in the Java Sea on the 13 February, 1942. Chasen was numbered among those who died in the attack." (Wikipedia). In 1976, a fifth volume, by other authors, was published. It is more common than these first four. The plates, by the great Danish bird painter Henrik Grönvold (1858-1940), are excellent. The plate order in the first volume is not entirely regular. Label on spines foot, stamp on front pastedowns, and small blind-stamp on titles. Some light wear, mainly to spine ends, spines a bit sunned, a always with old, red cloth books; otherwise an excellent, clean set. Nissen IVB, 791.

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